Unpaid internships: work for pay, never pay for work

Getting your dream job – or any job – shouldn't mean working for nothing, says David
Ellis. It's time to kick up a fuss and stamp out unpaid internships

David Ellis: unfortunately, no party has made unpaid internships party policyPhoto: Alamy

By David Ellis

9:51AM GMT 20 Mar 2014

That questions continue to be asked of unpaid internships does not baffle me. I would prefer that it did. It shouldn’t make sense that obtuse debates persist over whether those at the bottom deserve a wage - but it does.

While it’s disheartening, it’s hardly surprising: many young people are simply unaware that most unpaid internships are illegal and many businesses prefer not to acknowledge it.

I certainly didn’t realise it when I undertook one a couple of years ago, and many interning friends still doubt me when I tell them they are legally obliged to national minimum wage.

For many, taking on unpaid work is simply another wearying but seemingly necessary step towards a career. We live in a culture where young people have resigned themselves to working without pay in order to realise their ambitions.

So speak up and speak loud: we can have no more questioning the validity of unpaid internships. While it’s tempting to think all has been said, the case against them needs repeating until it is common knowledge.

Graduate Fog and Intern Aware, among others, have made excellent progress so far, with many job boards joining ranks and banning promotion of unpaid positions.

But whether it’s for the young people who don’t know, or to remind a naive start-up unwittingly ignoring the law, unpaid internships need to be stamped as illegal, rather than painted as a moral grey area. More needs to be said, and the government needs to engage with it.

We do not get to choose which parts of the law we abide by and which we blithely ignore. Employment legislation plainly states that anyone required to work for a minimum number of hours, who is set tasks and who adds value to a business, is classed as a worker and consequently is entitled to the national minimum wage. This applies to all businesses, regardless of size or profits, excluding charities.

While one may argue not every graduate is deserving of a job on leaving university, to argue a young person doesn’t deserve to have their legal rights respected is very unsteady, not least unsavoury, ground.

This legal set-up is elegant, simple – though apparently a stretch for those who think renaming a worker as an intern is being terribly clever and craftily sidestepping the law.

Such a crass ploy ignores the way the law works, and a simple amendment to include a definition for ‘intern’ would likely do little to improve matters – companies would simply concoct alternate monikers.

Fortunately, no move (though it has been suggested) is necessary: the law considers the intent of legislation rather than the basic semantics.

This is, of course, nonsense: no intern wants a job with a company small and shady enough to recruit on the black market and no would-be intern is hunting for work on a black market job board.

But what am I saying? The entire notion of a black market for internships is hysterically absurd. What does Mr Clegg imagine is going on – designers and interns meeting after dark in abandoned car parks to discuss rates of non-existent pay?

The private sector holds up its end equally weakly. Businesses may see unpaid interns as free labour but, illegality aside, it makes little business sense.

While Sir Philip Green bemoaned having to pay those in the lowest ranks, unpaid roles may likely exclude the best candidates. It is lazy to assume those willing to work for no pay are those who want the role the most; it is those who can afford to work without income who will do.

It is a foolish HR strategy: surely the best companies want the best people, not those most readily available?

The practice of hiring without paying also speaks uncomfortably about the opportunities for those from affluent backgrounds. After all, the pay an internship offers is not proportional to its quality. An internship with the UN is coveted – but unpaid. Working with an MP? No guarantee of pay.

Worryingly, some adverts do their best to weasel out of their obligations to minimum wage. It may say ‘The role being advertised is a voluntary one. As such, there are no set hours …’ but the deceit is clear: the set hours are ‘two days a week for a minimum of two months’ and the candidate will be expected to database manage and do the day-to-day work of the constituency team, among other responsibilities.

The problems of fashion internships are also well documented and the media has its share of similar problems.

These opportunities, and all similar, unfairly exclude those without either the capital or the support to work for nothing.

In reality, it's anything but: just as the candidate may come to feel progressively worth less and less, an employer may regard them with a similar (lack of) esteem: are they a worthwhile prospect, if the last place didn’t bother to pay them?

The callous nature of working unpaid – with the unintentional snipes of those around you (‘Are they paying you yet?’) - demoralises a person. It sends the wrong message: you, as a candidate, are good enough to use, but not worth a few quid an hour. It reflects badly on the company, too: turning over enough business to need more staff, but being too cheap to pay them.

We have an apathetic government and, for many employers, it’s not in their best interest to play by the rules, especially when the prospect of punishment is slim.

Young people must be made aware that they don’t have to put up with this and they must be gutsy enough to stand up for themselves.

By undertaking an unpaid role, a person is condoning it, facilitating a company to use them as economically worthless labour. It sends a signal to their peers too, affirming the notion unpaid work is simply part of the process.

Wherever possible, people must state their worth. While some will never do this – and granted, it’s a big ask – those who do are doing a service for those around them: it is the few causing a stir who are making a change.

The danger is assuming all this is known, that unpaid internships trouble everyone and they’re a modern relic. None of this is true. So keep up the noise and keep hounding: this government needs all the pressure you can give before they’ll take the matter seriously.